


my heart breaks and bends many, many times, and is born again with each sunrise

by coveredinthecolors



Series: glimpses of eternity [10]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 19:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15541209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coveredinthecolors/pseuds/coveredinthecolors
Summary: Post 5x13 of The Originals fix-it.





	my heart breaks and bends many, many times, and is born again with each sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> That ending was a mess and, thankfully, we don't have to deal with that in fanfiction.  
> Since the death scene of Klaus and Elijah was so different from what we've seen from an Original's death, I decided to write my take on why is that.  
> Title from 100 Years by Florence + the Machine.

It’s strange, he thinks. To accept death so easily when he has spent a thousand years eluding it.

And it’s stranger to know that this is not the fate he has been escaping finally catching up to him, but rather the fate he’s chosen for himself. It is easier to let go than to face reality, to face this life he has not chosen for himself.

He wishes he could say he has no regrets. To think that, if he could go back in time, he’d do it all over again. But he knows that he wouldn’t. Knows that, even now, if he could choose, he’d rather if Hope had never been born.

He does love her — as much as he could love anyone — but love is not always enough.

If it were, than his heart wouldn’t be aching and he wouldn’t have watched Caroline Forbes walk out of his life one last time.

He hopes that somewhere, in a different universe, in a different dimension, he gets the chance to fulfill some of his other promises to her.

New Orleans is lovely, but he can’t stop thinking about how it would be to take her to Rome, Paris, Tokyo… And the rest of the world once that was done.

But there is no time, and Elijah is standing in front of him ready to make this last, pointless sacrifice — one he can’t bring himself to fight against.

Selfish, he has always been so very selfish. And yet, Elijah mutters something about honour. 

He doesn’t let himself focus on that irony. He needs all his courage to drive that stake home and right through his brother’s heart, while Elijah does the same for him.

And it’s a peculiar feeling, dying. The cold that washes through him, the insatiable hunger that makes its presence noted one more time, as his body craves the blood to heal itself from a wound that can’t be fixed.

Klaus remembers dying a thousand years ago, when steel — not wood — pierced through his chest. He remembers vividly how it felt to have life escape from him with every breath. The feeling of losing himself.

He’s startled to realize this feels different. This doesn’t feel like death at all.

There is not slipping away or fading into a feeling of nothingness. In fact, it is quite the opposite — he feels as if he’s trapped in his own body, more and more grounded to it, until the weight of that existence is so heavy he can’t move.

Elijah looks at him as if he senses it, too. As if he also recognizes this.

Because it’s not death they are experiencing, but a desiccation spell.

* * *

 

_ If you are here to stop me— _

Caroline smiles to herself as she thinks of his words. She’s glad that he knows it is in her nature not to give up. He still knows her too well, even after all this time. But the thing is, she likes to think that she knows him, too.

She interrupts him, offering something that he wants.  _ I am here to collect a debt _ .

And when she plays him that voice message, she knows that she has him officially distracted — he doesn’t notice she never denied she was here to stop him.

She didn’t lie about being here because of his debt to her, not really. But a tour of New Orleans isn’t actually what she’s after. She wants him to fulfill his end of a different promise.

His siblings might let him go of always and forever, but she will hold him accountable for however long it takes.

Caroline easily falls back into the role of his favorite blonde distraction. She needs him out of the house so that the first step of her plan can begin, so she follows him down the crowded streets, listening to him speaking about the city he loves.

She doesn’t feel sorry for playing or manipulating him. If her plan works the way it should, he’ll have centuries to forgive her… Though, judging by the way he stares at her, she doubts they’d need that long.

Besides, she isn’t pretending to want to spend time with him, isn’t faking the way she looks at him or the shiver that runs down her spine when he wraps his hand around her arm, his thumb caressing it tenderly. That was always the reason why he used to allow her to distract him, after all — he’d get these moments of truth in her lies.

And when his face falls and voice breaks, it genuinely pains her.

That aching doesn’t stop when she leads him to that bar. When he asks her if she would be here if he weren’t dying. A part of him still thinks that she’s doing it out of pity.

_ Maybe I’d let you chase me around for a few more centuries. That was always the fun part anyway _ .

She needs him to know that she would let him catch her, but she doesn’t know how to tell him that she isn’t looking just for fun anymore, for the thrill of it all. She wants something more. She is ready, at least for now, and she needs them to have a chance.

She tells him to say goodbye to his family, because she knows he will listen to her, and she needs him busy for the next few hours so she can get a few things ready. But she also… She also says a goodbye of her own, because she’s terrified something will go wrong and this will indeed be the last time she sees him.

_ I’ll never forget you,  _ she says and she means it. And by the smile on his face, she can tell he knows.

She reaches out to cup his cheek. She can also tell that he doesn’t hear the words she doesn’t speak.  _ And, if you die, I’ll never forgive you. _

Caroline presses her lips against his own, in a soft kiss they never had the chance to share before. It’s not the passion from that day in the woods, but it’s somehow even more meaningful.

She leaves him thinking that was a taste of what they could’ve been, but she will make sure it is a taste of their future.

* * *

 

She watches the scene unfold from afar, a heavy knot in her chest.

She is scared they will notice she has replaced the white oak stake for regular wood, coated in spells cast by Bonnie at her request. Her friend didn’t ask too many questions, and she is thankful for it. She still isn’t sure how to discuss or explain what she’s doing, what she’s feeling.

It isn’t entirely rational, though she has thought everything through.

When he stakes himself, his body will be desiccated and then teleported to a safe location. The sleeping spell will last until she give him the potion to wake up from it, so she can take him back to Mystic Falls without a fight… She only plans on waking him up once she has the cure.

She has people looking. The teachers that work for her, her best students, Bonnie and the witches she’s met during her travels… Someone will find it. They must.

In the meanwhile, her children will absorb the excess of the dark magic whenever it grows, so that it will not consume him. She wonders if this is too much to ask of them, but then again, they are already involved in this mess. She should never have let them take the Hollow from Hope in the first place. Not when it meant Klaus’s death.

Caroline’s heart freezes when she sees Elijah breaking the stake in half.  _ Have they found out it is fake? _

She strains her ears, trying desperately to hear what they are saying. She chose a place far enough away that she wouldn’t be noticed by then, but that also makes it harder for her to make what they’re saying. And when she hears that Elijah is planning to die with Klaus, she is sure she must have gotten it wrong.

It makes absolutely no sense, and the blood in her veins turn cold. Could the spells have been broken by the stake being torn in two?

She hopes desperately that is not the case, but she isn’t sure she is breathing or blinking as she keeps on watching them. Even if her mind is already racing, trying to come up with an idea about what to do with the other Original.

She will need him out of the picture, too, as she searches for a cure, lest he interferes with her plan.

Caroline decides she will figure it out in a moment, because they are staring at each other, the stakes pressed against at each other’s chests. And she feels sick. She hadn’t lied to Alaric when she told him she couldn’t watch him die. But she needs to, to make sure everything is working the way it should.

She has to swallow a scream when they both take what was supposed to be a final blow.

… But, thanks to her, it isn’t.

She breathes in relief when she sees that their bodies do not burn and hit the ground. She closes her eyes as her knees threaten to give in. It’s just one small success when she thinks of all the following steps of her plan, but it is a victory nonetheless. She allows herself to be proud. Klaus is alive and she has the time to make sure it stays that way.

They disappear, leaving only ashes floating in the air to take their place.

_ Sometimes, magic leaves a trace _ , Bonnie had explained to her.  _ Like the telltale signs of a chemical reaction. _

Caroline doesn’t waste another second looking at them. She still has too many things to do.

* * *

 

It hadn’t been difficult to put both Originals in the back of truck she had rented, leaving that town without looking back.

She wouldn’t tell his family about what she was doing. Not yet. Not until it worked. If they decided to work against her for one reason or another, things could go badly, and she couldn’t afford that. 

No, the fewer people knew what she was doing the better.

She ends up putting both Mikaelsons in her old house, that was not protected by the best warding spells that a Bennett witch could cast. No one could get in there without her permission.

She finds home for Elijah’s desiccated and sleeping state in the guest room, leaving him there with the door locked and more protection spells.

Klaus ends up in her room.

And she smiles when she sees him there, lying on her old bed, where everything started. She leans against the doorframe, staring at him. So many years had passed since he had walked in here, while she lay dying on that bed, offering to cure her.

Soon, she would be walking in and waking him up to tell him that she had fixed all this.

And then… She takes a deep breath, and moves to sit on the edge of the bed, taking his hand on hers. She squeezes it lightly, knowing it is silly, but wanting him to know that she’s there. She hasn’t abandoned or given up on him. On them. On what they could be.

“I was thinking… People have been looking weirdly at me these past few years. They notice I’m not aging,” she tells him softly. “I have to leave. So I decided to put the money you gave me to good use. I’m thinking about building another school far away from here. Somewhere in Europe. Because, you were right, you know. A small town life was not enough for me.”

It pains her that she thinks of her children as she says this. That they are not enough for her.

Caroline loves them, more than she thought it was possible, but yet… There is a reason why she never deleted that voicemail. Why she’s still fighting so hard for his life.

She knows she can do this without him. That she can leave and start fresh somewhere else. Be a vampire, for a change. But the things is, she doesn’t want to. She wants to have him by her side and wants to see where this ridiculous idea that they could be together will take them.

_ Far _ , she supposes with a smile.

Caroline doesn’t doubt he will say yes once she wakes him up.


End file.
